


A Nebulous Future

by onamonapia



Category: Codename: Kids Next Door
Genre: Angst, Drama, High School, in-universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26040382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onamonapia/pseuds/onamonapia
Summary: (Kinda a sequel to my previous fic "The Night Before") Why does she have no friends? Why can't she remember her entire childhood? Why is she alone?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

"Have a good first day of school, Fanny!"

"Thanks, Dad." Fanny shut the car door and swallowed sharply as she turned to face Gallagher High School. She was almost more shocked than nervous - how had she managed to live in the same town for her entire life, and still go into high school with no friends?

Was she just a massive loser?

She vaguely remembered having friends - hell, she'd had friends just the year before, in eighth grade. She wasn't sure what happened. All she knew was that nobody showed up to her thirteenth birthday party at the beginning of the summer, and ever since, she had been friendless.

Her steps through the main hallway of the school brought her next to a lot of people she recognized and had even been friends with. She smiled at Rachel Mckenzie, but she was completely ignored. Rachel's cheerleader friends' voices took up the whole hallway. She got a small wave from another of the cheerleaders, Kuki Sanban, but when she opened her mouth to say something, Kuki had already turned back to the conversation.

What a good start. Maybe she should've joined the cheerleading team. She couldn't care less about sports and probably couldn't do a cartwheel to save her life, but they'd seemed to have bonded over their practices during the summer.

As she neared her locker, she walked by Hoagie Gilligan. She'd never really liked him, but she remembered being friends with him at some point. But he was busy talking to what looked like the nerd club. She sighed heavily as she opened her locker and threw her new supplies in - she'd gotten sparkly rainbow notebooks, and she was almost proud of them, but nobody was there to show them off to.

"Welcome back, Grizzlies!" the intercom statically announced. She could barely hear it over the robotics discussion going on next to her. "We have an assembly right at 8:30, in the gym! Time to head on over!"

She let the hordes of people go past her. She didn't want to be caught in the stampede.

Unfortunately for her, that left her to be one of the last people in the gym. The bleachers looked completely full. She squinted as she searched the crowds for an empty seat next to somebody she knew. She saw Abby Lincoln in the front row, but she was surrounded by people. She saw most of the people she'd already seen that day already, but those people were already out. There were others she recognized, but nobody she really _knew_.

And she remembered being a bitch to almost everyone she recognized anyways. That wasn't helping her cause.

She squeezed her way to the back of the bleachers. She didn't want to be with the misfits, but she saw no other choice. She took a tentative seat next to the wall - at least she'd only be forced to sit next to _one_ other person.

The assembly started, with the principal and student body president rambling about how the year would be _great_ , and how everyone in the room was _great_ , and everyone should follow the rules. A few people shuffled in late, and she squeezed her eyes shut when someone sat next to her. Who shows up late to the first day of school? Probably not someone she wanted to be friends with.

"Sup, Fanny."

Her eyes shot open and she whipped her head around. "Wally?"

He smirked. "This is some bullshit, isn't it?"

She didn't have very good opinions of Wally. Actually, she hated him (outside of the time she had a tiny, miniscule, barely existent crush on him in fourth grade). He was a total asshole. A bully. An idiot. Loud and obnoxious. He'd seemed to calm down a bit over the past few years, from what she could tell, but she doubted he could have had a complete personality makeover - at least, not one big enough to make him tolerable. Plus, he looked like he'd come right out of a "boys to stay away from" magazine: black hoodie with the hood up, black beanie, dark, ripped skinny jeans, and black Converse. He seemed to fit in with the other misfits she was sitting around, and she suddenly realized how weird she must have looked. She dressed like a prep, and was surrounded by the stoners.

The cheerleaders, in their full uniforms, got in front of the school to do some routine.

"Kuki and Rachel are cheerleaders," she told him. He was friends with them too, she remembered. She assumed he and Kuki would have been a couple by then.

"Good for them."

"Aren't you friends with them?"

"Nah. Not since middle school or something. Aren't _you_ friends with them?"

"Not anymore, really." She went quiet as she realized she was engaging Wally Beetles in a conversation.

The cheerleaders told everyone to stand up to practice their new cheer. Fanny stood up. Wally did not.

"Aren't you going to stand up? They told us to."

"Nah."

Fanny sighed heavily. She needed to focus on grades and college - she couldn't be hanging around someone like Wally.

But she refrained from doing the cheer. He was already having an influence on her.

* * *

During lunch, she stopped by the bulletin board and looked through the lists of clubs. She'd gone through all of her classes without talking to anyone, and she needed to change that. Plus, it'd look good on her college applications.

Theater? No, she'd never been into that.

Choir? She could kind of sing, but not _that_ well.

Anime club? No way in hell.

Her eyes glanced over all of the options. Did she have any hobbies? She was in an art class, but that wasn't even much of a hobby for her. She just needed the credits.

Maybe she'd just volunteer at the local animal shelter. Colleges liked that, right?

* * *

Her last class of the day was her drawing class. Her mind already felt like it would melt out of her ears. She hadn't made any friends or had any conversations, either. Her glittery notebooks were sitting unappreciated in her backpack.

She sat in the back corner of the art room, staring blankly at a sheet of paper. The bell rang, and the teacher took attendance. The seat next to her was still empty.

The door burst open in the middle of the teacher's introduction. Fanny's mouth dropped open as she saw it was Wally. What the hell was he doing in an art class?!

"I don't appreciate tardiness, young man," the teacher, Mrs. Abbot, chastised. She was an older lady, and Fanny could already tell she was going to be strict.

"My bad." Wally looked completely uninterested. He even had earbuds in.

"Name?"

"Wallabee Beetles."

"Well, Wallabee, take your hat off, and find a seat. Next time you're late, you get detention."

He rolled his eyes as he took off his beanie and removed his earbuds. To Fanny's dismay, he took the seat right next to hers.

"This class'll be a doozy, right, Fanny?" he asked, in the earshot of Mrs. Abbot.

She slowly slid down in her seat. This was _not_ the way to start the school year.

Mrs. Abbot took a moment to compose herself. "Today, we're going to start off with looking at where we are. You have the entire class period to draw anything about this summer, however you'd like. At the end, we'll share our pieces with each other."

Fanny stared blankly at the sheet of paper in front of her. She'd mostly spent the summer binge-watching Netflix and scrolling through Tumblr. How was she supposed to draw that?

She looked over at Wally's. He was twirling a pencil in his fingers. Everyone else in the room seemed to be working, so she slowly put her pencil to the paper. She could draw a picture of when she visited her grandmother, she figured. It was boring, and all they did was watch Jeopardy and knit, but at least it wasn't as depressing as the rest of her summer.

Mrs. Abbot was drifting around the room. "Very nice, Fanny," she commented as she walked by. "It looks cozy."

Fanny nodded and gave a small smile. A compliment! From a teacher! She was definitely going on the list of teachers to ask for a recommendation letter.

"Wallabee, why haven't you started yet?"

Then she remembered that she was sitting next to Wally. Her list went back to empty.

He looked up slowly. "I'm _thinking_."

"This isn't a time to think. This is a time to draw."

"But-"

"No buts. Put your pencil on your paper, and start drawing. Don't make me give you detention on the first day," she warned. "You already have two strikes against you."

He sighed loudly and obnoxiously, but put his pencil to the paper and started making vague shapes. Fanny went back to her work.

She'd actually gotten a bit into it, but she soon realized she couldn't get much farther. She doodled in the background until she heard the timer go off, and then realized she had to share her depressing summer story with Wally, and then with Mrs. Abbot.

"So," Wally said, turning towards her. "What did you draw?"

"It's just a picture of when I visited my grandmother this summer."

He kept staring at her, saying nothing.

"Um, we did some knitting…"

He stared at her. "That's what you decided to do? Man, you must have had a boring summer."

Her face turned bright red, hoping no one else had heard him. "Well, what did you draw?" She pulled his paper towards her. It wasn't as bad as she was expecting, shockingly. It was actually pretty good, as much as she hated to admit it.

"It's of me and my family. We went to the beach this summer. My mom really liked it."

"Oh. That's nice."

Mrs. Abbot came over. She marked off something on her clipboard for both of them. "Fanny, you have good doodles. We can expand on that."

"Thank you," she said shyly.

She stood over Wallabee threateningly. Even Fanny wanted to sink into the floor, and she'd just been given a compliment.

"I did what you said," Wally said, like the brat he was.

"Hm." Mrs. Abbot picked his paper up and looked it over with pursed lips. "Not bad, Wallabee."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Maybe you do deserve to be in this class after all, as long as you behave." She handed the paper back.

The final bell of the day rung, and Fanny quickly packed up her things and escaped before Wally could talk to her more. Why was he so obsessed with her today, anyways? Maybe he was friendless, too. But that didn't mean she had to talk to him.

"Wow, you left fast."

She snapped her head around. "Wally, what makes you think I want to talk to you?" She summoned her inner child - back when she was outspoken about her hatred of boys and basically everything else in the universe.

"I don't see anyone else running to talk to you."

"We barely know each other."

"Okay, so who do you know more than me in this school?"

She frowned. He was right. How had she lived in the same town her whole life, yet barely knew anyone in this high school?

"Um, Rachel? Abby?"

"Have you talked to them at all today?"

"No…"

"Exactly. You're a loser."

"You're way more of a loser than me," she grumbled. "Besides, I never liked you anyways. You were annoying, and a bully, and stupid!"

"You thought I was cute!" Wally argued back.

Her face turned bright red. "I did not!"

"Did too! You told me!"

"When?"

Wally blinked and suddenly stopped walking. Fanny stopped with him unconsciously. "I don't remember. But I know you did. I think we were, like, ten."

"Well maybe you just fantasized it." She rolled her eyes. "I'm going home. Don't follow me there too."

"I haven't been following you," Wally protested, but she was already a few steps ahead of him.

When she got in the car with her father, she nearly started crying. But then she realized that that would be pathetic, and she pretended that her life was just as fabulous as ever.


	2. Chapter 2

"Dad, who was I friends with in middle school?"

It had been two weeks of school. After making a point to ignore Wally, he seemed to have gotten the message. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't doing too well in the social department.

"Friends? You don't remember?" Mr. Boss took out his cigar, twirling it between his fingers.

"You didn't have any," her brother Shaunie immediately responded. He gave an odd look to Paddy and Mr. Boss.

"Well, that's not true," her mother interjected. "You were friends with that Rachel McKenzie girl. You don't remember that?"

"I kind of do, but we don't talk anymore." Fanny frowned, pushing her fork around her abandoned dinner plate. "I don't really talk to anyone anymore."

"Then make some new friends."

"Paddy," Mrs. Fulbright chastised before turning back to Fanny. "I'm sure you can make some new friends. You should try to talk to Rachel! You two were the best of friends."

"I don't think she would want to talk to me," Fanny mumbled.

"Why's that?"

"I don't know."

"It can't hurt to try."

* * *

Fanny went into school the next day determined to talk to Rachel. She wasn't really sure why they had stopped being friends. If she couldn't remember, it must not have been something major, right?

When she walked into the cafeteria, she felt her stomach flip. But she grabbed her lunch and approached the cheerleaders.

She gulped. "Hey, Rachel," she said quietly.

"Hi Fanny!" Kuki greeted cheerfully.

Fanny smiled back. "Hi. Can I… sit here?"

"Of course, silly! You don't need to ask!" Kuki cleared off a spot at the table and patted at it. Fanny sighed in relief as she put her bag down and sat down.

"Long time no see," Rachel said.

"Yeah." She suddenly realized how out of place she looked among the rest of the cheerleaders. She was the only one without a uniform on.

Rachel appeared to be studying her.

"So, what's up with you?" Kuki asked.

"Um, not much, honestly. What about you?"

"Cheerleading stuff, mostly. It's fun. You should try out next year!"

Fanny let out a nervous laugh. "Maybe."

"I saw you talking with Wally a while ago," Rachel said. Fanny couldn't grasp a tone. "How's he doing?"

"He was really annoying."

Rachel laughed. "Sounds like Wally."

"Aw, come on, he's not _that_ bad!" Kuki protested.

"You're just saying that because you had a crush on him in elementary school," Rachel chided. "I have a class with him and he's just as stupid as I remember. Still never does his homework."

Kuki giggled. "Guess he hasn't changed much! He used to only do homework if Abby helped him."

"She probably wouldn't want to associate with him now," Fanny added. She still felt uncomfortable, but at least she could confidently say that.

"Yeah, no way. She's going to go to Harvard or something, and he's going to end up in prison, probably. We all predicted that when we were kids." Rachel shook her head in disbelief. "Can you believe he used to hang out with her and Hoagie? Hoagie's like five years ahead in school now. He was my lab partner in biology for a day before he got moved to the AP course."

"Wow," Fanny breathed. How had everyone gotten so smart? Had she always been this dumb?

Kuki shrugged. "Abby and Hoagie were too nice, I guess."

"Whatever happened to Nigel Uno?" Fanny suddenly asked without thinking. She narrowed her eyes as she realized what she said. What did happen to that kid?

"I don't know. I think they moved back to England or something." Kuki brushed it aside as if they hadn't been close friends for years.

"You guys haven't heard from him or anything?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Huh."

"Yeah, pretty weird," Rachel mumbled, trailing off. "Hey, Fanny, you ever talk to Patton?"

"Patton? No."

"Or Chad?"

"Isn't he like three years ahead of us?"

"Yeah, but he kinda hanged around us. Same with a bunch of other kids."

"I haven't really talked to anyone much recently, to be honest," Fanny said quietly.

"Aw! You should hang out with us!" Kuki put her arm around her shoulder. It was weird to not see an oversized green sweatshirt covering her arm.

"Um, okay," Fanny said, smiling.

"Let's hang out this weekend! My sister has a soccer game so we'll be alone all morning."

"Yeah, okay!" Fanny finally felt like she was having a high school experience.

* * *

Of course, art came around, and Wally was quick to notice her uptick in mood.

"I saw you talking with Kuki and Rachel earlier," he said, getting out his supplies.

"Yeah. What about it?"

Wally shrugged. "Nothing."

Fanny let out a deep sigh as she pulled out her pencil. That week's assignment was to work on perspective. She'd been working on drawing chairs for too many days in a row.

"Why were you friends with Hoagie and Abby?" Fanny blurted out.

Wally twirled his pencil in his hand as his face scrunched up in thought. "Dunno. That's probably why we're not friends _now_."

"Have you tried talking to them?"

He snorted. "Of course not. They're nerds. They wouldn't want to talk to me."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Fanny ended the conversation there and focused on her fifth chair of the week. Wally looked spaced out and scribbled in between thoughts. But she didn't really care. She kind of had friends then, right?

* * *

That Saturday, she knocked on Kuki's door. Kuki beamed as she opened it. "Yay! You came! Rachel's already here. She's doing some homework. Boring. I've gotta go put some clothes in the laundry, so you can go up there. Do you know where it is? Oh, good. I'll be right up!"

Fanny had forgotten how energetic Kuki could be.

"Hi, Rachel."

"Hi, Fanny."

They sat in an awkward silence.

"Rachel, why did we stop hanging out?" Fanny asked. She just had to know.

"You don't remember?"

"No… was it something I did?"

Rachel smirked. "Don't worry about it. You didn't do anything wrong."

Fanny opened her mouth to say something else, but Kuki had already walked back in, talking about her newest obsessions.


End file.
